Chromatography Forum

Hey all,

Recently our lab bought a refurbished agilent 1100 series HPLC. I assume the instrument had been inactive for some period of time. So today I went to purge the pump with 100% methanol. However, out of the 4 channels only C and D channel was able to purge solutions. Both A and B didnt seem to be able to even draw solutions from their respectively reservoir.

I was wondering if anyone would have idea what the problem is or would I need to use a syringe and draw the air out of the degasser for starters.

Thank you very much

Hello.

would I need to use a syringe and draw the air out of the degasser for starters

Of course.

Hello

Do not suck liquid with syringe through degasser (I've seen problems with degasser chamber after using syringe). Remove tubing before degasser then pull liquid and connect to degasser - let the gravity to do job.

Regards

Tomasz Kubowicz

Hmm so prime the tubing before the degasser, what if the trapped air is inside the degasser unit? would drawing the solution using syringe before the degasser solve the problem?

I will give it a shot tmr, hopefully the problem is relatively easy to fix.

Hello

You didn't understand...
1.Disconnect tubing before degasser
2.Pull liquid with syringe
3.Re-connect tubing to degasser inlet
4.Disconnect degasser outlet
5.Leave it for few minutes and liquid will come through degasser (gravity)
6.Re-connect tubing to degasser outlet
7.Then open purge valve, put 5ml/min and purge each channel

Regards

Tomasz Kubowicz

Issue has to be in degasser or multichannel mixing valve, should be easy to determine which. These pumps are designed to pump liquids, not gases like air.

Also you can connect the degasser outlet of A and B to the valve inlet for C and D, it you get proper flow then I would suspect the proportioning valve is not opening for A and B. If you can get flow this way then switch back and if you continue to get flow with A and B then it was just having trouble pulling the air out of the system.

The oldest degassers you could prime with a syringe, but the newer ones with the membrane instead of capilliarys it will damage them if you apply too much suction, gravity is the better option on those.